Toki Tori 2 review – don’t cry fowl

The Wii U finally gets a worthwhile new game, with a new eShop download whose cute visuals hide an impressively open-ended puzzle adventure.

Toki Tori 2 (Wii U) – eggs-tremely clever

Cute-looking video games may sell well on smartphones and tablets but we often worry that the acceptance of them on home, and even portable, consoles is at an all-time low. Many will see the cute little chick and Japanese name (even though developer Two Tribes are Dutch) and instantly dismiss this as a childish irreverence. But Toki Tori 2 is actually an inspiringly ambitious puzzle game, and a prime example of how to make a worthwhile sequel.

The original Toki Tori was released in 2001, as one of the last gasps of the then aging Game Boy Color. Despite being ported to many other formats after that, including WiiWare and PlayStation Network, it never received the attention it deserved. But that doesn’t really matter now, because apart from the main character and 2D visuals this sequel has surprisingly little in common with the original.

The first game was a sort of one-man (well, bird) version of The Lost Vikings, as you used a variety of different tools to rescue stolen eggs containing your brethren. There are no tools in the sequel though and instead you must rely on what at first seems a pretty ineffectual couple of chick-based powers: a whistle and a stomp attack.

How to use these two abilities is pretty much the only thing the game tells you when you start and you’re left to work out the full extent of their powers on your own. There’s no tutorial, and not even a traditional main menu. You’re expected to not only experiment with your abilities but also explore the open-ended game world without all the prodding and sign-posting of modern gaming.

At a basic level the whistle is used to attract creatures towards you, while the stomp scares them away. That may not sound that useful but the stomp also affects the environment, knocking fruit out of trees or breaking wooden objects.

By combining these abilities with the many different animals you suddenly have access to a huge range of different options. There are crabs that can be tricked into becoming bridges or barriers, porcupines that can be manipulated into ramming otherwise impassable obstacles, fireflies that are needed to light darkened caves, and insects that can act as mobile speakers for your whistle.

It’s the frogs that tend to be the most useful though, producing a floating bubble when they eat a bug – which you can then jump into to reach higher ground. But every animal has multiple different uses and states, many of which are not at all apparent at first. Even your little chick can affect the environment more directly, by for example causing grass to grow if he wanders through it when wet.

The whistle can also be extended to whole songs, with friendly songbirds teaching you how to fast travel via the map, discover hidden collectibles, or restart failed puzzles.

The latter is an acknowledgement that the game is reliant on a lot of trial and error, but this doesn’t seem so much like a flaw as the unavoidable price of making the puzzles so open-ended. If you ignore the nature of the visuals though it is the game’s hardest sell, and as your exploration continues the game abandons even the little offerings of help it gives at the beginning.

It’s all very reminiscent of 8-bit era games were you were simply dumped in an environment with a small set of abilities and expected to get on with it. That may seem unfair and off-putting to some modern gamers but it’s a welcome alternative to other games terrified to leave you to your own devices.

That said, there’s no pretending that the game doesn’t get incredibly complicated and although that’s far from a problem in itself the complete lack of feedback means you’ve no idea whether your convoluted ideas are a plausible solution or a complete dead end. This is a particular issue because the game requires some very specific timing and reactions even when a solution is clear. So if your trigger finger is not in perfect synch with your grey matter the game’s difficulty increases even further.

Even so, we’re not minded to chastise the game for daring to challenge its players, and the sheer novelty of finding that such a cute game is such a monster in terms of its demands is all part of the fun. It’d be frustrating if all games were like this, but it’d be equally tragic if they disappeared entirely.

In Short: Beneath its cute exterior beats the heart of a demandingly difficult brainteaser which rewards invention and persistence, but has no time for trivial puzzles – or gamers.

Pros: Completely non-linear in terms of both puzzles and exploration, with an expert exploitation of a very small set of abilities. Cute but expressive visuals.

Cons: The lack of feedback and in-game help means it’s often impossible to tell whether you’re on the right course. Requires some very careful timing.